“McQueen: Sartorial Learnings of Kazakhstani Publicity Tart For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Hoxton” anyone? With his latest take on swimwear, Alexander McQueen seems to be “channeling” Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat character, offering a version of the audacious “mankini” the comedy actor wore in his movie a couple of years ago.
McQueen’s swimming brief might be a little more subtle than Borat’s but it is just as ridiculous. At least the Kazakstani mankini had a construction designed for practicality; its over-the-shoulder straps providing vital lift and support while ingeniously leaving a great expanse of white flesh completely denuded and ready for painful sunburn.
Unless you are a perfect model size, with torso and legs in a specific proportion, you may have trouble wearing the “McQuini.” Men with long, rangey bodies will find themselves encountering an eye-watering triple wardrobe malfunction of a garroted windpipe, testicular bifurcation and a tan with a stripe down the middle of the chest that will look like a particularly brutal open-heart surgery scar. In hot conditions, it would be possible to un-noose yourself from the collar and let the long tie thing dangle down between your legs, as if doing a schoolboyish elephant impression, but then you’d look even sillier.
More importantly, isn’t the mankini a bit spring/summer 2006, darlings? Hasn’t it passed its sell-by date, along with using the phrase “Jagshemash!” as a greeting? In short, aren’t these disturbing T-bar trunks the sort of thing that Alexander “Lee” McQueen shouldn’t be putting his name to.
Firebox, a Web site that specializes in party costumes, practical jokes and novelties, has been doing officially licensed Borat mankinis (10 percent elastane, 90 percent polyester, one size fits all — Naaice!) at US$19.80 each since November, 2007, and they’ve already sold more than 10,000. “We have been overwhelmed by the response,” says Firebox director Christian Robinson. “We never thought that something so humiliating would prove to be so popular.” Go to the Firebox Web site and you’ll see that lots of satisfied customers have posted up pictures of themselves wearing their mankinis on various raucous evenings out. Here’s Daz and Ben, Kevin and a Yorkshire-man called Rona whose mankini caption reads, “You’re never too old.” Actually, on second thoughts, don’t look at that one.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
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